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Welcome to Books Coffee and Crafts News’ first “Crafty Author’s Coffee Hour”. This is a new feature that I’m super excited about “Authors that Craft”. Our On the Beach segment, will be for Coastal Magic Convention 2017 “Featured Authors”. As one of CMCon17’s “Featured Bloggers” I have the honor of hosting one or more “Featured Author” each month. I arranged (bribed) to get crafty ones. 😏

Today we’re in Daytona Beach, Florida at a lovely little coffee shop I’ve conjured in my head. My guest this afternoon is the lovely, and extremely talented Hildie McQueen. She is the first CMCon17 “Featured Author” to join me. I will be hosting a different author each month until the convention in February.

For those of you who might not be familiar with the bestselling author. Hildie McQueen loves action, love and unusual settings. Author of western historical, Highland historical and contemporary romance, she writes something every reader can enjoy.

Most days she can be found in her pajamas hiding from delivery men while drinking tea from her David Gandy coffee mug. In the afternoons she browses the Internet for semi-nude men to post on Facebook.

Here comes Hildie now. Looking bright and cheerful, wearing jeans, a loose fitting multicolored top and of course a Kate Spade tote with her planner in hand. Once the hugging and fangirling is over. Hildie is one of my favorite author type people. Hildie, sweetheart that she is compliments me on my summer dress, and I ask where she got her adorable blouse, we place our order. She gets an Earl Grey Latte sweetened with honey. Then asks for a large cup and offers to split a toasted bagel with me. I happily accept, and order an Iced Caffè Americano for myself. Once our drinks arrive we settle in for a cozy little chat.

I want to thank you for joining me today, and for being the first “Featured Author” from Coastal Magic, first “Author who Crafts” (Crafty Author), as well as my very first visitor to join me online for a Coffee Time Chat. Wow! That’s a lot of firsts.

Speaking of firsts, last February was my first Author/blogger/reader convention. Coastal Magic Convention 2016. I’m thankful I choose that convention, because it was so fun and casual. I had so much fun, I decided before it was over, that I would be returning for the next one. You couldn’t imagine how thrilled I was when I was chosen as one of the “Featured Bloggers”. That means not only do I get to do spotlights for you and the other “Featured Authors”. I get to help out at the convention. I wish I had heard of CMCon17 sooner. I could have been going for years.

What about you, Hildie? How long have you been attending? What has been one of your favorite experiences at Coastal Magic.

I am one of the lucky authors who attended the very first year. It was called Old City, New Blood then. Those of us who were there will never forget the parrots in the lobby. It was a riot, but boy did we have fun!

My favorite event at CMC was that first year, when four of us hosted a Caribbean candy party. It was a last minute throw together, and an absolute hit!

Every year I enjoy the laid back attitude of the convention, not only that, but who can resist books, fun people and the beach?

Tamye Whitener

Hildie and I will be heading to Daytona Beach, Florida next February for the Coastal Magic Convention. It’s a super casual, author/reader event, right by the beach. As a “Featured Blogger” I’ll be moderating, while Hildie will be on some fun panels, doing a meet & greet or two, and generally hanging with fantastic readers like YOU! If you love urban fantasy, paranormal, or any variety of romance, this is the place for you.

With panels designed to start interesting discussion, and meet & greets with fun themes, we’ve got something for just about every reader. While there IS a schedule, there is also ample time for authors and their fans to just hang out together, this is what we’re here for! Join us for reader, blogger, and author shenanigans.

Saturday’s charity book sale and signing is open to convention attendees, and also FREE to the public. We’ve got a Featured Author lineup, over 50 amazing storytellers, that showcases not only bestselling favorites, but debut and “new to you” authors that are sure to catch your attention. Come take a bite out of the beach with us!! Feb 2-5, 2017

A sexy modern Cinderella type story with a humorous twist. Except, there’s no glass slipper, just an ugly dog and a prince who is anything but charming.

When Sunny Stilton gets the job to decorate millionaire Beau Forrester’s new house, she is way over her head. To make matters worse, not only is her new client drop dead gorgeous, but he’s also a total ass.

Beau Forrester, a confirmed bachelor does what comes natural after sleeping with the beautiful interior designer…he fires her.

You’ll keep turning the pages to see what happens next in this fun and touching story.

Shannon Aldean’s excitement after a great one-night stand quickly fizzles when her entire family shows up the next morning…while the guy is still there. Stress soon turns to panic when her date turns out to be the her new boss at the local ranching supply company.

Drew Emerson wants to simplify his life, move on from under his deceased brother’s shadow by buying his own ranching company in small Longview, Montana. Soon he finds out how hard it is to move forward without first reconciling his past.

The morning after Amy Leigh Paisley, from Pine Oak, Montana is left behind in Las Vegas, she wakes up with not only a huge hangover, but with a husband who happens to be Trent Baxter, Billings’ most eligible bachelor.

His father thinks she’s a gold-digger, her mother wants her to be one and all Amy Leigh wants, is to stay married to the hot man for just a bit longer and maybe another night of great sex.

Montana Born will be part of the Love & Grace Anthology, which is sweet, so in the Anthology it will be a very different version than the one to be released on its own later this fall.

This collection of sweet and inspirational novellas has an uplifting love story for everyone. These stories bring a touch of grace to romance, and a touch of romance to your heart.

Our twelve authors have collaborated to bring together this collection. Each story relates to dyslexia in some way, and the full proceeds from all the stories benefit GRACEPOINT – A School for Dyslexia. This box set is our collective gift of love and support to you and the children GRACEPOINT serves.

Can a town save a marriage? Will a high school reunion offer a second chance at love? Can a man with a secret and a woman afraid of being hurt learn to trust? Can a girl running from her past escape her heart? Will a woman trapped in the past discover the true importance of family? Can unexpected love become the best present ever?

You’ll find hours of enjoyment as well as a satisfying ending to each story. No cliffhangers and no partial novels are offered here, just an escape into worlds of love, families, and grace.

The guiding hand bringing this project to fruition is USA Today Best Selling Author Ciara Knight.

Crafty Author’s Coffee Hour

Now for the crafty part of our hour. Besides the excellent stories you weave, what else do you craft, Hildie?

I’ve done some crafting. Scrapbooking and card making and I’ve dabbled a bit into beading, but that didn’t last. Little beads were everywhere and I hated stepping on them. Finally I fell into the whole colorful mesh wreath thing, friends gathered at my house and made them for every season. I don’t even use them, they were just fun to make.

Wow! I’ve never tried working with mesh, or making wreaths. I’ll have to give it a try this fall. I can see making an purple, orange, green, and black one for Halloween.

I noticed you mentioned papercrafts, but not your decorative planning. I know that might not be the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions crafts, but I definitely consider it a craft.

I love using paper planners and even make videos for planner people!

I just recently started decorative planning. I stumbled upon your video’s while surfing YouTube for “How to planner videos”. I love your videos. Not only did I learn a lot about planning, but about yourself as well.

Hildie promised to share a video with us, if I posted a picture of one of my planning pages. So here’s a picture of one of my weeks. Not near her level, but I’m a newbie. I still decorate one week at a time, as I’m still figuring out my style and what works for me. But I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The happy side effect of decorative planning….. I actually write things down a lot more.

You’re in luck. At your request, I made one just for this event.

Hildie McQueen chats about Coastal Magic while decorating her planner for the week of the event.

Oh wow! That was a wonderful video. I love how you pull everything together. So organized, yet pretty and fun. You’ve given me some great ideas. I’m going to have to check out some of the Etsy shops you mentioned.

I loved that you planned out the week of Coastal Magic for us. I guess it might be a good idea to go ahead and do my planning for that week also. Today has been so much fun and I’m so glad you were my first guest here on Books, Coffee, and Crafts News. I look forward to seeing you again in Daytona Beach this coming February. It’s going to be a blast.

Thanks everyone for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed Hildie’s visit as much as I did. And I really hope to see you all at Coastal Magic Convention 2017.

Please feel free to comment on this post. I’d love to know if you are going to be attending #CMCon17 or if you have gone in the past. What you thought of Hildie McQueen’s video and/or decorative planning in general. Also, what or who you would like to see on here in future.

Be sure to catch us next month for another CMCon17 Featured Author Spotlight.

Wellcome to my blog my name is Beth i live in Wales in the UK its full of green grass and lots of hill oh and sheep haha.i wanted to start a blog so i could write about my life , my journey on finding my self , my kids and anything that is on my mind which could be anything from make up , men , chocolate ANYTHING. I suppose its sort of like a dairy.i dont get to spent as much time as i would like on here but starting from today i am going to make the time even if its for just 10 small moments